Chapter 22: Going Solo
Finally returning to their base, their group rushed in the dormitory building as they moved a sofa to barricade the door. As they felt they were safe enough, everyone except for Dave sighed with relief. Everyone looked exhausted and tired as they were mentally worn off from constant danger.
Adam and Brian looked slightly better since they had already grown accustomed to such feeling after grinding levels. However, Rebecca seemed to have been completely exhausted as her head and eyes were churning since she was drained mentally.
Katelyn and Rachel, who came attracted to the noise, were stunned as they looked at her. She had left the dormitory building as a charming woman with slightly naive looks, yet now, having blood stains all over her clothes, she looked more intimidating and even fiercer than before. Still having a tinge of naivety in them, her eyes seemed to become slightly sharper in the span of few hours.
Somebody may say that a person can't change so much in both an appearance and aura, yet wandering outside where your life was constantly endangered, even small change in demeanour caused by such an environment might be eye-catching, not to say, she had already been close to death for once.
Rachel and Katelyn couldn't help but gasp in surprise when they met her after hunting.
'What has she experienced outside of the dorms?'
Both of them shuddered at the thought of what dangers were lying beyond the doors of their dorm. They even thought that they were clever enough to refuse going outside with others.
As their group felt they were safe now, they directly went to their respective rooms to change their bloodied clothes. They couldn't just start eating covered with the smell of the rotten blood, moreover, there were plenty of ownerless clothes in other rooms on the first floor.
After several minutes, they had gathered in the kitchen, all except for Rebecca, who was sleeping soundly in her room. She didn't even change her clothes as she lied down on the bed, staining it with blood. Checking her up, Dave even covered her with a blanket he found on the bed, so she would have a better sleep.
For a lunch, they had another pot of stew yet, now, cooked by the joint efforts of Rachel and Katelyn, who were curiously looking at their group. They seemingly wondered what they were doing all the time they were outside.
Did they meet any other students?
How bad is it out there?
And finally, what the heck had gone with Rebecca?
Countless questions swirled in their minds, yet they had no courage to ask them. At least, not when the Dave was here.
Tired from today, Adam and Brian wanted to quickly eat their own shares of food. As they sip from still warm stew, their faces quickly grew somewhat bitter. Looking at them, Dave also tried it and easily understood why they looked like that.
The stew had too much salt in it, not to say that it had too much water added in it. It wasn't so worse that you will have an urge to spit out, but it hadn't the same rich taste as in Rebecca's stew. Dave thought that it was edible though.
He had eaten much worse food in his past 5 years, so he was able to tolerate its taste, what can't be said about Adam and Brian, who were sipping from it with bitter faces and reaching for cans of food. Looking at Adam and Brians' reaction and sipping from a stew themselves, Rachel and Katelyn blushed slightly in embarrassment.
'Well, they are considerate enough to not whine about its taste.'
Finding their faces, which looked like they were forced to eat shit, very amusing, Dave smirked at how they were washing the taste of stew, stuffing their mouths with canned food. Quickly finishing his own share of stew and canned food, he looked at everyone else.
"The stew has too much salt in it, consider it next time you cook. Adam and Brian, rest for a day and train your abilities, while I will go solo hunting and try to investigate our surroundings."
"Hey, then take me with you!"
Adam exclaimed in objection since he didn't want his friend to die wandering alone. He knew that Dave was strong enough to kill evolved zombies, yet it still didn't soothe his worries.
"Don't worry about me! You are already exhausted from today and barely standing. On the other hand, I didn't kill lots of zombies for today, so I'm going to practice a bit. Also, in this state, you're gonna be more a burden than a help, so stay safe in the dormitory building."
Saying everything he wanted, Dave returned to his room and rested for an hour. During this hour, he concentrated on restoring his mana reserves through meditation.
[Your spirit has increased by 1 point]
Dave was pleasant to increase his spirit stat since he aimed to reach 5 points in it as soon as he could. Spirit closely resembled mana and stamina in a way that it was expendable since it showed how much soul power or mental strength you had.
On the other hand, intelligence was important for Enhancers such as Adam since they relied much on their souls. Increasing intelligence improved the brain of a person and also improved the quality of soul power. In the case of Adam, more intelligence he had, stronger the power of his Telekinesis will become.
Currently, Dave already had enough points in intelligence stat for an initial stage and he had no soul skills to use it even in his past life.
After an hour, he left the dormitory building walking in one direction further than where he hunted as a group. Further he went, more zombies he met. There were plenty of them wandering on the streets and only god knows how many of them were inside other buildings such as shopping malls and cafes.
Settling for a street with shops lined up over the street, Dave started evaluating zombies wandering outside. Several grocery shops were lined in the street, forming a small market. There were several of them on the campus as it was a place where students went for cheaper prices. Student life had their own share of troubles including management of the finances.
The market wasn't packed with zombies to the brim, yet there were plenty of them to kill, making it an ideal hunting ground. Moreover, he had already noticed 2 Giants and a Hunter among ordinary zombies and that is only monsters which he was able to see.
Maybe such number of zombies may strike fear into others, yet in his eyes, they were massive amounts of experience which will fuel his evolution.
Starting as a weak hunter in a world filled with monsters, believing that everything was a game had helped him to calm himself at initial stages. He didn't even notice how eventually he had started seeing experience points in fearsome monsters. Perhaps, it was his Gaming skill.
'Ohh...another Hunter in the group.'
With such thoughts, Dave dashed towards zombies.